Comparison of the work hardening of metallic sheets in bending–unbending and simple shear

Constitutive equations for sheet metals are important input data for the numerical simulation of forming processes. Their identification usually comes from uniaxial tensile tests at several orientations to the rolling direction and from equibiaxial tests. To characterize the kinematic part of the work hardening, strain path reversals are needed and different mechanical tests have been developed, such as tension–compression and simple shear. The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of the database used for identification, by using either bending–unbending or simple shear for strain path reversal. This study is performed both on an aluminum alloy and a TRIP steel. The presented results show that, for a limited strain range, the experiments are consistent.